Sid Roth - How to Cleanse Your Spirit Through Healthy Eating
Sid Roth: Hello. Sid Roth here. Welcome. Welcome to my world where it's naturally supernatural. What is the condition of your faith? Your faith today is based on your experiences from the past. Too many people have not seen the results they're looking for and as a result have lowered their expectations. Too many people, because of not seeing the results they expected, have actually changed their theology. It's time for a faith detox. It's time, because Jesus is getting ready to return, it's absolutely time for a 30-day adventure in the supernatural of God to be normal, normal as defined by the Bible. You know, there are invisible toxins that are affecting people's faith. For instance, Laura, I remember when I was a brand new believer I went to a Kenneth Hagin meeting and he taught about how to stand on the Word of God. I got home and a loved one developed cancer.
Laura Harris Smith: Right.
Sid Roth: And I have not developed my understanding of the Word of God, and as a result, I was devastated.
Laura Harris Smith: Right.
Sid Roth: We really have an enemy that is trying to undermine the Word of God. Now here you are a pastor's wife. You've got six children.
Laura Harris Smith: I do.
Sid Roth: And you've seen all sorts of miracles. But then it happens to you.
Laura Harris Smith: Right.
Sid Roth: Height of your life. What happened?
Laura Harris Smith: Yes. Well the enemy has always tried to use health issues with me. But four years ago my king size life really caught up with me. You can't forget the eight children. You know, the big family, and yes, my husband and I pastored this church. There's my writing. I'm involved in so many things and that's fine. Many people love what they do. But I was giving myself only four to five hours sleep a night. And I went to the doctor for something totally unrelated and a test came back showing that I was on the brink of adrenal failure. Basically it is stage 4 is when all of your organs shut down. They're no longer being fueled by your adrenalin and your cortisol. Well I was in stage 3, so I was told make changes or die. So I went on total bed rest and then I was told 18 to 24 months it would take to turn around, really wake up all of my organs. And thanks to using food as medicine, and I still believe I received a miracle, because in six months I was the picture of health.
Sid Roth: And you know what's so amazing? You can see she's a very vital type of person. But you say you have more vitality now than you had when you were in high school.
Laura Harris Smith: Yes, I really do. And I believe in the supernatural power of God, the regeneration of our youth. But we have to give God something to work with. I believe in miracles, but I'm telling you, Sid, at the church where we pastor in Nashville, Eastgate, I have always noticed that when people come to the altar for prayer they want a miracle, but they don't want to steward it afterwards. And that really began to sadden my heart, and so I noticed that the people who came to the altar, their prayers all fell into one of five categories. It was either for their health, their finances, their relationships, the social issues going on in the world around them or their own personal identity. And so I began to work with people in those five areas getting their faith bolstered in those areas, but doing it with a three-pronged approach: body, mind and spirit.
Sid Roth: It's, you know, most Christians they recognize they have to do something about their emotions, their hurts.
Laura Harris Smith: Yes, some do, yes.
Sid Roth: They might realize it, but most don't do it.
Laura Harris Smith: Right.
Sid Roth: But most Christians, the last thing they think about is their body.
Laura Harris Smith: It's so sad. It's taking so many people out. We are putting ammunition in the enemy's gun and he would love nothing more than to take out the army of God. So yes, we've done a great job in the last few decades educating Christians on spiritual warfare and emotional warfare, the battlefield of the mind. But we must, we must as a church rise up and get healthy and give God less crisis intervention, you know, prayers to pray, just so that we can live our everyday lives in a strong place. Live long, live strong.
Sid Roth: But when you teach, you teach you have to do this three-prong approach. What, coming into, this is the last of the last days.
Laura Harris Smith: I believe you're right, Sid.
Sid Roth: We're going to see the greatest miracles of all that is ever seen. But I believe that Christians, because they read in the Word you're going to be healed, and that's true.
Laura Harris Smith: It is true.
Sid Roth: They don't take care of their body as much as, say, non-believers.
Laura Harris Smith: Well and First Thessalonians 5:23 says that, "You will be kept blameless of the coming of the Lord Jesus, body, mind and spirit". So we can receive some blame for some of the things that we do. I've had people come and ask for prayer for digestive issues, and when I asked them what they eat, they say, trash. And I just think, oh Father, there's a difference in healing and Divine health, and I want both. That's what I want. I want both. So through that whole experience, I went through, I actually wound up going back to school to become a nutritionist.
Sid Roth: How did you get better, actually?
Laura Harris Smith: Well honestly, I am a farmer's daughter, so I've always had an appreciation for vegetables, but this was so much more. This involved reinventing myself at night really being willing to lay down and waste time in sleep, eight to nine hours sleep every night. And really, I've always been a Sabbath keeper, but that became very, very important in terms of totally unplugging once a week. I mean, we turn our phones off. We just pull in as a family. And then also, using specific foods, I call them organ-friendly foods, the vegetables, different colors, are really good for specific organs. And if you learn what those are, you can eat them every day and know that you're nourishing that particular organ.
Sid Roth: I found that fascinating because I'm not that knowledgeable in this area. But you found that just in a couple of days you can detox each organ using the medicine of food. I love that.
Laura Harris Smith: But that's really the miracle is that how God has created our bodies to begin with, he has created them that they want to be well. If we will give them the right fuel, they will turn around. Now I keep saying, you know, prevention as in you won't get sick to begin with. But it also is, I'm living proof there is healing. God gave us things on the third day of creation and all of the seed-bearing plants and our vitamins, and our minerals. I was on some supplements at the time. But nothing had a childproof cap. It was all made for a vegetable or a fruit or what have you, and I am just such a proponent now. I have everyone in my family doing this. If I can turn my Titanic-sized family around, you know, then anybody can do it.
Sid Roth: Okay. When we come back, how would you like to find the secrets, the supernatural secrets she found to detox your spirit, your soul and your body so you can be normal. I'll be right back.
Sid Roth: Now I read the statistic that you gave me. The U.S. Center for Disease Control says there are 140 toxic chemicals that cause 70 percent of chronic diseases. By the way, being a minister, why in the world did you go out and get that certificate as a nutritionist? Why?
Laura Harris Smith: Because I saw that we were not whole. The army of God was not whole. We were treating one-third or two-thirds of ourselves and the enemy had a way in. He had a way in to wiggle through and cause chaos in our lives. We are not even Christian if we don't have faith because it took faith to become a Christian. So that's why the enemy comes after our faith. So statistics like that or also even Harvard University, Harvard Medical Center, they came out with a study that said, it was called "The Gut Brain Connection", and that connection showed that there is such a link in between your brain and what happens in your digestive track. Think about what happens when you have stage fright. You're nervous up here and your tummy gets upset or you have a gut reaction. They found that they were so connected they should be considered one body system. So what that tells me is that what you eat affects what you think. And the Bible is very clear about what you think affects your faith. So I'm proposing that what you eat can indirectly affect your faith.
Sid Roth: I've actually never heard that before. But what she's saying is food can affect your faith and it's actually been scientifically proven. How about fasting? What happens when we fast? How does that help us?
Laura Harris Smith: That is proof that food affects your spirit. When you fast, you are removing the thing that, or many things that is causing you to grow in your flesh instead of in your spirit. How did sin enter the world in the Garden of Eden? Eve baked that apple pie or whatever it was.
Sid Roth: That's not what happened.
Laura Harris Smith: I know. Whatever it was, it was through her appetite. And Esau sold his birthright for a pot of stew. Satan even tempted Jesus and said, "Turn these stones into bread". So appetite is so usable by God. If you will have appetites up for him and if you will satisfy your natural appetite with the things that he shows you, that is supernatural.
Sid Roth: Now tell me a few things you might have done to get the toxins out of your body.
Laura Harris Smith: Well the program that I put people on, the 30-day program, remember I told you about those five categories that the prayer requests fell into, I break people's 30 days down into five, those five categories of their lives, every prayer that they pray. And each one has six days. We spend six days on your relationships, six days on your finances. There's a devotional for each day. You want to go in and say, Lord, what happened to my marriage? What happened? Why can't I get ahead? Why can't I get healed? Why can't I get promoted? Whatever. And then each of those six days, we detox three body systems, spending two days on each. And I found...
Sid Roth: Take one.
Laura Harris Smith: Okay. This is a perfect example. When we're studying relationships, we are spending six days digging deeply into every relationship around you, above you, beneath you, and it just so happens that the color vegetable that is very good for the body system we're detoxing that week, which is the heart, your cardiovascular system, your circulatory system, that particular week we're going to eat a lot of reds. Isn't that easy to remember? Reds in the heart. So it contains a little something called lycopene. And everybody is trying to put it in a pill form now. Take your lycopene pill. I think just reach for some strawberries or some red grapes, or some red peppers. Easier, cheaper, much better for the body.
Sid Roth: I was asking you, actually yesterday, it just seemed to me that just a few days isn't going to be long enough to detox a liver, a heart.
Laura Harris Smith: Right. But here's the issue. God has already given us filters in our bodies. Our lungs filter, our kidneys, our liver, even our skin, it has a million little mouths on it. All right. So we already have filters. But we spend two days on each of those filters cleaning them out so that they can do their job because God has already designed our body to do the job for us. But many people, if I can get say, their filter gets dirty, and eventually what happens is, because their bodies are worn down, it does affect their faith. There is no questioning, no getting around it. If you feel ill in your body you are going to have a more difficult time approaching your Christian walk with fervor, with confidence, with faith. So it is so connected. We cannot segregate them. And I get very, can you tell I'm very passionate about this message.
Sid Roth: Now there's a fringe benefit, by the way, because people that she's taught this course for, they lose a lot of weight. Give me an example of one person.
Laura Harris Smith: Well I'm just going to tell you. I have one person who's very close to me and he said, okay, well I'll do it. So he goes on this faith detox and he's losing weight immediately, like five pounds, 10 pounds. He loses, in the course of the 30 days, he loses 22 pounds and he is so transformed by it, body, mind and spirit that he says, "I think I'm just going to continue eating this way". So he does and now a week out, he's now up to 25 pounds that he's lost. It's not water loss and it is not protein loss. You eat four to five times a day, eat or drink something four to five times a day. You're not going to go hungry and nothing tastes like grass. You have my word. But it's just amazing to me to hear that story along with other stories for men and women. And these are not just people who have tons of weight to lose. But I am hearing from people all over the United States, all over the world, 17 pounds in 17 days, four pounds in the first five days. And they'll say the first four days was a real kicker, but now I have more energy and more focus, and my body is fueled with the right things.
Sid Roth: You know, when we come back I want to find some simple supernatural ways to detox our faith. Be right back.
Sid Roth: Tell me some of the faith killers that stop us from being natural supernatural.
Laura Harris Smith: You know, what happens when you pray for someone to be healed and they're not, and then months later, you get a call at 2:00 in the afternoon saying, someone has had a horrible wreck, will you come do to the hospital with me and pray. And there's something inside of you that says, it didn't work last time, why is it going to work this time. But what you have to do is you have to step back and look at what Scripture says about the act of praying over someone, laying hands on someone, and you have to quit preaching your experience and preach the Word. If you do not do that, you will begin to change your theology. Your doctrine will start shifting everywhere. So that's what I really try to do first is tether people back to the Word. And why are my prayers not answered? Where are my prophesies, you know, the fulfillment to my prophesies? All of these things, they're going to get up every day and they're going to read a devotional that deal with what I call these 30 universal faith toxins. But we start there with the Word and with their spirit and then turn our attention to their emotions. And there are prayers that they pray to deal with the residues of that faith toxin. Think about this.
Sid Roth: Let's take all the traumas that we've had.
Laura Harris Smith: Exactly.
Sid Roth: The rejection we've had, failures that we've had.
Laura: Grief, anger.
Sid Roth: They all take a toll on us.
Laura Harris Smith: They do.
Sid Roth: How do we deal with it?
Laura Harris Smith: Well you have to really, you have to confront those Goliaths. You have to admit, I was wounded walking through that. When my church split in two or when my church died, it hurt me. It wounded me. How am I going to deal with that grief? I have a lot of people to forgive, you see. So yes, we pray these healing prayers in there that deal with the emotional residues of each faith toxin and then turn our attention to the correlating body detox. So I'm telling you, by the end of the 30 days, the devil has no place left in you that he can throw a hook and keep you back from your future. So you can't just stuff and stuff, and stuff things that happen. You have to confront them and remove them from your life.
Sid Roth: I want you to lead us in one prayer to get rid of some of these toxins.
Laura Harris Smith: I would love to. All right. Heavenly Father, I thank you right now that you have created us body, mind and spirit. First of all, we just repent for not acknowledging that. On any level, any place where you have not been whole, where you have ignored your body, just tell the Lord right now, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Any place where you have ignored your emotions and not allowed yourself to be real, just tell him, I'm sorry, no more. And any place in your spirit where you have not made him Lord, where you have maybe not even awakened to the Holy Spirit to fill you up, just tell him, Lord, I'm sorry. And now, right now receive a fresh impartation in all three. And I just declare over you that no weapon that has formed against you will prosper. Not a single one. You are going to come out of this fire not even smelling like smoke. And now I pray that it would be a testimony to God that he would be famous because of the testimony in your life. You have struggled and you have been through hardship. But guess what, you're still standing. You're still alive. So put praise in your mouth. Thank God for what he's doing because he can make a message out of your mess, a testimony out of your test and a triumph out of every trial you've been through. Just tell him, I receive a new anointing right now, Lord. I receive healing for my body, I receive healing for my mind and I receive healing for my spirit. Make me whole. Amen. Now it's done.
Sid Roth: God wants you to have a new beginning. There is the natural and there is the supernatural, and you are a three part being, just as God is a three-part being. If you don't, you know, a wise man once said, definition of insanity, keep doing things the same way and expect different results.
Laura Harris Smith: That's right.
Sid Roth: Well we Jewish people have a word for it. It's meshuga. That means crazy. Make sure Jesus is your Messiah and Lord. Tell him you're sorry for your sins. Believe that his blood wiped away your sins and paid everything for your sins. Then ask him to live inside of you and believe his grace, his enabling power will allow you to overcome every problem in your life in Jesus' name. Do it right now.